28 May 2007

In addition to winning the Europa Cinemas Label prize for best European film, Control also won a further two awards at the 60th Cannes Film Festival:

- CICAE Art & Essai prize for best film- Regards Jeunes Prize for best first or second feature film

Apart from impressing the judges and juries, another important aspect of Cannes is for filmmakers to secure distribution for their wares. According to HollywoodReporter.com, Harvey Weinstein has picked up Control for North American distribution. A French release date proper of 26 September 2007 has already been announced but as yet no date is set for the UK.

27 May 2007

Alex recalls: "In my spare time I also managed a classical composer who was signed to a classics offshoot of Factory Records (Factory Classical). Prior to my first meeting with the company's founder, Tony Wilson, I'd phoned to say I needed a fax machine to help me work. Tony arrived wearing an Armani suit and trainers, and had a fax machine tucked under his arm for me. Evidently he had just ripped the Factory records machine straight out of the wall.

Tony cut through all the bureaucracy to find out what his artists wanted. In this instance it was just a fax machine, but I learned a lot from him, including how to help artists create an uncluttered area that allows them to work. I also learned his can-do attitude and easy approach to people."

An clip of Anton Corbijn doing an interview for Dutch television about 'Control' (in Dutch which is subtitled and occasionally breaking out into English) alongside brief extracts from the film itself is now on YouTube.

"The French artist Henri Fantin-Latour is best known for his paintings of flowers, but he also painted portraits and 'subjects of the imagination'.

Although friendly with many of the Impressionist painters, Fantin-Latour considered himself a Realist and preferred to exhibit at the Salon rather than with the Impressionists.

This show bring together pictures from our own collection with loans from the National Gallery, Tate, Victoria & Albert Museum and local galleries to explore his intimate style."

Factory fans will of course know Fantin-Latour for Peter Saville's use of one his flower paintings on the cover of FACT 75 Power, Corruption and Lies in 1983 (a fact which is acknowledged in the York Art Gallery's Fantin Facts).

Later this year, Kevin Cummins will publish a new book entitled 'Juvenes: The Joy Division Photographs of Kevin Cummins'. The book will consist of Kevin's selection of pictures from his Joy Division archive accompanied by short personal essays by several writers including Ian Rankin, Simon Armitage and David Peace. The foreword is by Natalie Curtis.

The book will be limited to 226 editions. 200 numbered and 26 lettered (A-Z). The lettered editions will be slightly different - they may be signed by all the writers too. The price is GBP 200 (tbc).

26 May 2007

The Guardian today reports that 'Control' has been named best European film at the Cannes film festival. The prize was awarded by the Europa Cinemas label and will boost the chances of the film being shown at a cinema near you across Europe.

24 May 2007

Stuart Shave / Modern Art presents a major retrospective of the work of Linder (who went down in Factory Records legend for her design of a menstrual egg timer designated FAC 8) at P.S.1. in Long Island City, NY, USA.

Colin, announcing the event on the Cerysmatic Factory Message Board, said: "There will be a panel of writers/musicians talking about Martin, Factory Records and all things late 70s, early 80s in Manchester. Then I will be playing Hannett's greatest hits and some obscure Hannett stuff too and there will be food, drink, memories and cerebral networking!"

Caroline Sullivan in yesterday's Guardian reviewed one of OMD's 2 nights at the Hammersmith Apollo and was suitably impressed. The evening comprised a run-through of Architecture and Morality in the first half and the rest was pretty much their greatest hits. Long-term OMD fan and designer, Peter Saville was in attendance.

23 May 2007

Check photographer Richard Bellia's photoblog for the ARTE television station from the Cannes Film Festival in the sunny south of France. He has some great shots of 'Control' director Anton Corbijn and star Sam Riley (see Photogalerie 2).

Last night's Ghosts of the Haçienda was a multi-screen video event at One Central Street in the heart of Manchester and featured part documentary footage (Haçienda construction - FAC 54 - set to the pounding beat of New Order's Prime 5-8-6, 'Riverside' programme on the opening, a very young and debonair looking Tony Wilson explaining the philosophy, FAC 104 The Tube at the Haçienda, a short bit of Claude Bessy explaining his amazing visuals that were shown on the two video screens, plus much more) and part live performances from the famous and not-so-famous acts to have graced the Haçienda stage during the its First Age. All came thumping out of a fantastic sound system and a little dancing even broke out at one point.

Ikon man Brian Nicholson edited and directed the footage.

Jon Dasilva manned the decks and played a selection of period sounds before and after the 2-hour film show.

20 May 2007

Yesterday's Guardian contained a special supplement on the Manchester International Festival. Alongside full details of the MIF there was a 4-way discussion group involving Peter Hooky, Tony Wilson, Peter Saville and Festival organiser Alex Poots. The inside back cover featured an entertaining interview with Shaun Ryder who now apparently cycles 40 miles a day.

MoSI is appealing for first-hand accounts from regular clubbers at the Haçienda, which will be recorded on the anniversary night. The recording will help give context to the Museum's archive collection of Haçienda material, some of which is currently displayed in the Museum's Collections Centre. The event is free of charge but places are limited, so participants should call MoSI to reserve a ticket.

The Haçienda opened on 21 May 1982 and closed in 1997. The event at Dry Bar, on 21 May, aims to encourage former fans of the Haçienda to share their memories of the iconic Manchester club, which rose to international acclaim and put the city at the centre of Britain's dance culture. Favourite Haçienda tunes will be spinning on the wheels of steel while the microphone is passed around.

Later, fans who want to continue the nostalgia party have the option of free transport to a film night, Ghosts of the Haçienda, at One Central Street, which will celebrate the anniversary by showing films of club action shot by Ikon.

Jan Hargreaves, Senior Archivist at MoSI said: "The Haçienda is an important part of Manchester's identity, and attracted international attention on the dance scene through its championing of Chicago House and later as a focal point for the 'Madchester' scene. We have a number of collection items from the club, such as flyers, posters and copies of Ben Kelly's building design plans, but we wanted to capture some of the essence about why it became so successful. The best way to do that is to speak to the people who were part of that scene and add their voices to our collections. Please do come along and help us to put clubbers' stories of the Haçienda down in history. It should be a fun event, with a chance to catch up with old friends, listen to some favourite tunes and share memories of one of Manchester's most well-loved institutions."

Participants at MoSI's Haçienda Memories event at Dry will receive a complimentary drink, snacks, and optional transport to the Ghosts of the Haçienda event, at One Central Street. Ghosts is a ticketed event and tickets priced 5.00 GBP (3.00 GBP concs) can be obtained from Ticketline.

Haçienda-related items from the Museum's Factory Communications archive include guest lists, details of records played, building design plans, posters, flyers and membership cards. Items from the collection are on public display from 3 May to 29 June in the MoSI Collections Centre.

To attend MoSI's Haçienda memories event at Dry Bar, please contact Sallyann Browning on Tel: 0161 606 0112 to reserve your place. Event runs from 6-8.30pm, 21 May at Dry Bar, Oldham Street, Manchester. Complimentary drinks and snacks will be available, and transport is available to the Ghosts of the Haçienda event at One Central Street at 9pm.

After the pre-reviews, the review proper of Control by Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian.

He says "Corbijn's movie is shot in a stunning high-contrast monochrome, perversely turning Macclesfield's grimness into grandeur. It effortlessly revives a British cinematic style that you might call beautiful realism..."

And "It is in a way comparable to Michael Winterbottom's 24 Hour Party People, ..., but far fiercer, and bleaker, and darker. Control gripped the audience at Cannes; it had atmosphere."

There's a 4-minute clip of Peter Saville talking about his work on YouTube. Last year he designed some trainers and a tracksuit for Adidas as part of their Adicolor range and this clip presumably derives from that association.

11 May 2007

JRP/Ringier has delayed publication of the already-long-awaited Peter Saville book 'Estate' which was due this month. The new publication date is not known (which is always a bad sign).

Fans of Saville, typography and graphic design in general may be interested to know that a new Jan Tschichold monograph is coming out and it is the first serious book to deal with his avant garde posters of the man most famous for Die Neue Typographie (The New Typography), an acknowledged influence on Saville.

According to the print version of tonight's MEN (print issue only at this stage), "New Order's 'awful secret' is out: They've finally split". It follows Hooky's recent comment on his MySpace page (which some of you will have already seen) that he was "'relieved' that he had unburdened himself of the 'awful secret'".

9 May 2007

Last night's profile of celebrated English artists Gilbert and George on the BBC's new Imagine programme presented by Alan Yentob featured a clip of The Durutti Column's 'Requiem Again' from the FACT 244 Vini Reilly album.

7 May 2007

Both the second age of the Haçienda: as epicentre and spearhead of the fledgeling underground dance revolution, and the third age of the Haçienda: as flagship of the eventual and inevitable acceptance of the new dance as mainstream, have both been fully documented ad nauseam.

The first age of the Haçienda, though: venue of choice - via the eclectic booking policy of Mike Pickering (now head of A&R at BMG); sophisticated nightclub – via the cutting edge design of Ben Kelly; and living room of the Manchester underground – via Factory Records' honorary membership scheme, has been largely ignored and forgotten.

The early years of the most famous club in the world will be celebrated in 'Ghosts of the Haçienda' - an evening of video and music at One Central Street, Manchester on Monday 21 May 2007 (9pm - 3am).

Some of this footage was recorded onto U-Matic tape, edited and released by IKON/Factory into the public domain. Most of it, though, was either lost or destroyed.

Ikon& have assembled two hours of found concert footage – from the opening night itself through the first two years of the Haçienda. It was previously shown in 2005 at Barzooka, a small arthouse bar in Blackburn.

Due to popular demand and persistence, Ikon& have agreed to a final showing of the footage at the right time: 21 May 2007 is the twenty-fifth anniversary of the club's opening night, and in the right place: One Central Street is the home of one-time Haçienda bar manager Leroy Richardson.

This may be the last chance to see the Haçienda in its original form before the 'cease and desist' shutters come down for the last time.

3 May 2007

Ginny Clee, on her own website, ginnyclee.com, explains how she became to be the cover star of FAC 198 Stereo/Porno by Vermorel:

"My publishing company of the time Warner-Chappells put me together with a writing duo called The Vermorels. They were a husband/wife team who had made their name as pop commentators having written a book on the Sex Pistols. I could talk for hours about this partnership as it was almost the end of me but this page isn’t long enough. The good that came out of it was a single on Factory Records called Stereo Porno. It wasn’t a hit but it did end up in The Victoria and Albert Museum in their Best Record Covers of all Time exhibition. The designer was Peter Saville, the photographer Fred Vermorel and the naked ass... mine!"

More news from the MEN and more on Hooky. In a rather unlikely pairing he will team up with to perform classic Joy Division songs at the huge Impossible Dream Project gig at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff this December.http://www2.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif

Tony Wilson is to make his first public appearance since undergoing treatment for the cancer he was diagnosed with at the end of last year. He will host the Big Chip Awards on 24 May 2007 (moved back a day to avoid a clash with the Champions League Final - will Man Utd be there!?) reports Chris Barry in the MEN. The awards celebrate the cream of the digital world in the north west of England.

The site of Strawberry Studios in Stockport, where many a Factory Records act once recorded great music, is to be commemorated with a Blue Plaque courtesy of the Stockport Heritage Trust and Stockport Council reports the Manchester Evening News.

In the grey days of late 1970s post-punk Manchester, youth culture was a serious affair: every musical performance was measured mostly by the conviction of its delivery. The term 'New Wave' opened up free vistas where acquired skills could once again be exercised after punk's monochrome blur. It could be applied to anything from a James 'Blood' Ulmer record to the latest Throbbing Gristle release, Magazine to Swell Maps. Move outside that terrain into Sun Ra, Parliament, Frank Sinatra and Martin Denny, and your options were suddenly without limit...

Then came Tony Wilson's Factory Club (at the Russell Club in Hulme) offering an open invitation to experiment that was taken up when Ken Hollings, Howard Walmsley, Eddie Sherwood and a few others decided to make some noise to accompany their 16mm silent epic Biting Tongues. A further performance followed a few weeks later, when Colin Seddon and Graham Massey disbanded their Post Natals project and joined up. The film itself, a flashing series of negative images, became a memory; the name remained.